Champions League final - Is this the day Chelsea have been waiting for?

The power of Bayern Munich lies on their hurricane attacking force of the bulldozing Gomez and ingenious of Frank Ribery and Arjen Robin. That they are German is a bonus.

The strong and rigid mentality and world renowned defensive discipline is another factor, but this one is a misplaced match given that only the philosophy will be whole German an the team is universally versatile.

Their ace in the sleeve is the home ground and their secret weapon will be the crowd. That is as far as their advantage goes, not withstanding that they are the second most attacking team in their league after the champions, Borussia Dortmund.

In their quest to conquer Europe tonight, an average English side that underperformed in the league and have no substantial leader in both senses of the word, they face a tricky assignment.

Chelsea are without John Terry, their influential skipper, and they are guided by stand-in manager in Roberto Di Matteo. They have a few issues about injuries and suspensions that rendered Ramirez 'unplayable' after his telling semi-final performance at the Camp Nou in Barcelona.

Now, what is the Londoners' hope? Chelsea, as we have mentioned before, were the kings of English football in terms of talent and money for a long time in the advent preceding the arrival of the petro-dollar bankrolled Manchester City.

These players were spoilt and called the shorts and threw tantrums at will. This was made conducive by the choice of managers that Roman Abramovic hired.

At this stage of the campaign, the players understand that they are at the twilight of their careers without much to show for it. They do not own the 'town' anymore as their salaries have just been turned into peanuts by new Barclays Premier League champions, Manchester City.

The players have no one to attend to their tantrums or to change their nappies. Basically, the gloves are out and for the first time in three seasons or so, Chelsea seem to have decided to play football.

Among the other reasons, the biggest is that in their playing for their footballing lives now, they have only each other to rely on. They toyed around and the show audience have shifted focus to the Etihad Stadium and they need something special to catch the attention once more.

That something, is the UEFA Champions League Cup.